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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27930634">Out on the Sea</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmweasley/pseuds/hmweasley'>hmweasley</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anxiety, Banned Together Bingo, Beyond Panem Discord's Opening Event, Communism, Gen, Kid Finnick Odair, Pre-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 21:22:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>787</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27930634</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hmweasley/pseuds/hmweasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Finnick was at home on the ocean like most kids his age. There was something about the sway of the boat under his feet that brought comfort. Perhaps it was the distance from the peacekeepers. They had boats of their own, but they weren’t fond of using them if they didn’t have to. Being out on the water was the closest one could come to feeling free.</p><p>Finnick had never considered the full implications of that before the old man started speaking dangerously.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Finnick Odair &amp; Original Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Banned Together Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Out on the Sea</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompts:<br/>Banned Together Bingo - Communism<br/>Beyond Panem's Opening Event - District 4 fishing</p><p>If you'd like to talk about Hunger Games you can come join us on the <a href="https://discord.gg/9K4ph3Nr2X">Beyond Panem Discord server</a>.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Finnick closed his eyes, letting the sea breeze brush against his face. He’d been out on the sea before of course. Every child in District 4 was out on a boat before they could walk. With a few limited exceptions, they would all spend most of their lives on the sea.</p><p>He didn’t mind it. He was at home on the ocean like most kids his age. There was something about the sway of the boat under his feet that brought comfort. Perhaps it was the distance from the peacekeepers. They had boats of their own, but they weren’t fond of using them if they didn’t have to. Being out on the water was the closest one could come to feeling free.</p><p>Finnick had never considered the full implications of that before.</p><p>At first, it was a typical fishing trip. They set the nets and then waited. Finnick wasn’t sure what he’d expected on his first trip out with the old man who was to be his teacher, but he hadn’t bothered to think about how much time doing nothing there would be.</p><p>Finally, the man had had enough of the silence as well. He leveled Finnick with a piercing stare and spoke.</p><p>“I have half a mind to go back to shore without collecting the nets,” he said.</p><p>Finnick’s eyes widened. Their boat would be inspected when they returned to the dock, and if they had no fish, there would be a punishment. Finnick knew he’d be treated the same as the old man despite it being his first day.</p><p>“Why?” Finnicked asked, unable to keep the horror out of his voice. “We have to eat.”</p><p>The man snorted.</p><p>“As if what I catch keeps me fed,” he muttered. “You know every single fish in that net will be taken by the peacekeepers. They’ll ship them off to the Capitol or to feed the peacekeepers in other districts. Only those they find inadequate will stay here in District 4. I’ll have to go to the market to buy fish that I caught.”</p><p>The old man rubbed at his heavily calloused hands, his eyes staring at the horizon.</p><p>“Everything about it is wrong,” he muttered. Finnick was no longer sure if the man remembered he was there. “There had to have been a time when things weren’t like this, when they were right. This entire district could feed itself from what we catch in the sea. We’d never pay a dime for any of it. We could eat what we catch, spread it among us instead of shipping it off to faraway places. Not a single person would go hungry in the district again.”</p><p>Finnick’s stomach tightened with fear. Despite their distance from shore, he glanced around anxiously as if the peacekeepers’ boat would pull up alongside theirs out of nowhere. But it wouldn’t. They were nowhere in sight, and the loud motor of the boat would warn them that they were coming. Finnick took deep breaths to relax himself, but it didn’t work.</p><p>“Obviously I don’t like the Capitol,” he said slowly and quietly, unable to shake the feeling of being overheard. “But if we didn’t sell <i>any</i> fish, how would we get everything else? Like clothes or soap.”</p><p>The man smiled as if Finnick had asked him something wondrous.</p><p>“We’d make them of course,” he said. “Plenty of the district can’t come out here to fish every day. They can make the clothes while the rest of us fish.”</p><p>His eyes glazed over. Finnick watched him for a long moment, wondering if he would say more, but he didn’t. Finnick leaned over the side of the boat, pretending that he was straining to see the fish net below the water. Inside his chest, his heart raced. </p><p>They all had dreams of course, but he’d never heard anyone state theirs so openly with no fear of getting caught. This reckless man was meant to be Finnick’s teacher? He couldn’t request a change without being asked why, and he had nothing but the truth to offer. He looked over his shoulder at the man who was still lost in his dreaming.</p><p>Even if Finnick wanted nothing more to do with him, he couldn’t throw the man to the sharks.</p><p>Career training, Finnick realized with a jolt. If he joined, he could officially get out of learning how to fish. He looked down at the surface of the sea. He’d dreamt of being out on it every day for as long as he could remember. Being a Career had never interested him, but neither did listening to dangerous political talk every day until he was caught.</p><p>He took a deep breath, knowing what he would have to do.</p>
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